from a friend.....

The government needs to apologize! Get it over with, bite the bullet and revise your GSU procedures. If they wanted to do a search, I would think it more appropriate for three officers to show up at the front door politely, with their warrant and then proceed with their search in a normal friendly manner. This sort of GSU approach may be appropriate for a known gang leader and killer, but hardly for a foreign investor, immigrant type retiree. Whoever the Police Minister on the CABINET was, and authorized this, should have shown more common sense and done a more friendly, but firm approach. The man has good intentions and the Belizean public support McAFEE. Those of us who have had their houses ransacked and turned topsy turvy before the formation of the GSU know full well how this type of raid is tyrannical and not democratic. Just a fishing expedition, looking to demonstrate political power, and create FEAR and TERROR. This stuff is going to backfire down the road very badly and escalate into violence. I´ve experienced it decades ago and certainly did not like it. What I didn´t like was the mess they made. In the case of dogs, you need to let the owner either tie them up, or lock them up, or something. 14 hours in handcuffs. You have got to be kidding? What about shitting and pissing, or getting water to drink, etc. One thing sticks out, is the story of the officer who mislaid the licenses, passport, or paper work, if that was the case. That smacks of illegal duplicity and no BELIZEAN PATRIOT want police officers staying on the police force, that are of bad ethics and morals. People are plain fed up with manufactured evidence, framing people and nuisance lawsuits that cost time, emotional turmoil and money. Nobody in Belize wants to live this way. Get rid of the bad eggs on the police force. Keep cleaning those bad officers out.

Response from another friend:

Well, I certainly am sorry to see this whole mess go on. Obviously the cops went overboard on a power play. They could have searched without breaking stuff and holding people out in the sun for hours. But now McAfee is issuing not so idle threats to punish the whole country by trying to damage the tourism industry. That damage is already underway. Articles are spreading now to foreign language publications. The top Russian computer online mag has a story today with the first Youtube video of McAfee. It's all in Russian (except for the word "SWAT" heh heh) so I won't bother sending it.

I hope this can be settled quietly soon but that does not seem to be in the cards.